Environment

Brisbane – On 10 October 2016 in Brisbane, Australia, 200 leaders from the public and private sector, including government ministers, business and civil society leaders, and leading scientists will take part in a historic summit on water scarcity and drought. Driven both by climate change and poor water management, droughts are becoming more frequent and water

USGS has completed a comprehensive assessment and inventory of potential mineral resources covering approximately 10 million acres of Federal and adjacent lands in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. The assessment, conducted at the request of the Bureau of Land Management, ranked the mineral potential in select areas of these states along a gradient of no

NASA scientists and engineers are field testing the CO2 Sounder LiDAR, an instrument powerful and accurate enough to gather around-the-clock global atmospheric carbon-dioxide (CO2) measurements from space. The instrument is a strong contender for a potential next-generation carbon-monitoring mission, the Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Seasons (ASCENDS). The LiDAR operates by

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today finalized a determination under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from certain types of aircraft engines contribute to the pollution that causes climate change and endangers Americans’ health and the environment. The findings are for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs),

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A geospatial science expert at the University of Arkansas will help refine international guidelines for greenhouse gas inventories that will be considered for adoption by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The panel, known as IPCC, was created to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its

Washington, D.C.—Urban centers lie at the root of an important—and often neglected—source of emissions: deforestation. According to Senior Researcher Tom Prugh in Can a City Be Sustainable?, the latest edition of the annual State of the World series from the Worldwatch Institute, deforestation caused by growing urban consumption is contributing to massive emissions globally, despite increasing sustainability efforts

The phrase “tipping point” passed its own tipping point and caught fire after author Malcolm Gladwell’s so-named 2000 book. It’s now frequently used in discussions about climate change, but what are “climate tipping points”? And what do they mean for society and the economy? Scientists at Rutgers University and Harvard University tackle the terminology and

Climate change is already affecting inland fish across North America — including some fish that are popular with anglers. Scientists are seeing a variety of changes in how inland fish reproduce, grow, and where they can live, according to four new studies published this week in a special issue of Fisheries magazine. “Thanks to this synthesis,

COLUMBIA, Mo. – For nearly a century, forest fires have been viewed by scientists and the public as dangerous and environmentally damaging disasters. However, recent research has shown that forest fires are vital to maintaining healthy forests. While people in the western portions of the U.S. experience forest fires often and know of their value,

A team of scientists from the University of Maryland and Sigma Space Corporation has shown that 3D forest structure and topography can be measured rapidly, efficiently and accurately over large areas, using an innovative laser technology called single photon lidar (SPL).